THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1922. DIVIDED DISTRICT POLICIES.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4377, 13 February 1922, Page 2

THE Hauraki Plains Gazette. With which is incorporated THE OHINEMURI GAZETTE. Motto: Public Service. MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, & FRIDAY. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1922. DIVIDED DISTRICT POLICIES.

. ■ Writing on the subject of the Waihou and Ohinemuri Rivers Commission’s report, the local paper'at Thames states that except for a small holding (endowment lands) the borough “has no interest in the district, needs no river improvement, and is in no danger of flooding.” As the Thames Harbour Board controls the greatest revenue producing part of the Waihou River, the residents of Thames do not desire' that this control should be lost, but other people in the vast area outside, who have no special interest in Thames, may think that if and when a river board is set up it should by natural right control the whole river, and not merely a portion of it. The paper endeavours to enlist the sympathy of the Hauraki Plains _ County Council to support the journal’s policy. It remarks that if a tonnage rate were levied, settlers using the Piako River, and not the Waihou, would escape, and that this would not benefit the Plains Council. It may as well have added that such a rate would- certainly not be detrimental to the Plains Council; as a matter of fact, owing to the course the river takes through Netherton a tonnage rate would benefit the Plains Council to some extent. Had there been a river board several years ago, composed of representatives from all parts of the Valley and the Plains, there would not have been any Kopu ferry fiasco —the result of a gamble at the partial expense of the Hauraki Plains for the considerable benefit of the Borough of Thames. . A number of the people on the upper portion of the Plains want a bridge across the Waihou River at Kirikiri—just how many ratepayers is hard to say, since the project was decided upon without a vote being taken. For this bridge the local paper at Thames is always striving, but. for the railway across the Plains from Paeroa to Pokeno, which the Plains people, almost to a man, want, the journal referred to has never been known to publish an editorial line in favour. Although the “Gazette” takes the general view (since supported by a Royal Commission) that the Thames Harbour Improvement Scheme will be of greater benefit to the residents of Thames than to any others in a similar area, yet we

support it, as we have been, and still are, of the opinion that if tne scheme is found practicable it will be of more or less benefit to the whole Valley and the Plains. But if we looked at everything from a narrow parochial view, and saw no further outside of Paeroa than the Thames journal sees beyond Thames, then the Harbour Scheme would get no support in our columns, since the people of Paeroa Borough, if they considered borough interests alone, would probably be satisfied with an improvement of the navigable qualities of the Waihou and Ohinemuri rivers. Some months ago we advocated the formation of a Thames Valley and Hauraki Plains Progress League, but the attitude of Thames to this broad suggestion was similar to that which it has taken in respect to the proposed Parliamentary Delegation—nothing doing—simply because the Plains and the Valley might benefit, and not the Borough of Thames in particular. Some representative body- is needed to endeavour to harmonise conflicting local policies, otherwise Auckland and Hamilton will eventually loot our divided house. The deliberations of such a body would broaden the minds of our public men, and incidentally cause wider views to be expressed in the public prints.